Fresno city council approves new contract with police union

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The deal is a true compromise that had city council member Lee Brand quoting Mick Jagger.

Brand said, "A famous Englishman once said, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need."

What the city needed was a way to save money. It's estimated this agreement with the Fresno Police Officers Association will save the city about $7 million in health care and retirement costs.

FPOA President Jacky Parks it ends the threats Mayor Ashley Swearengin had made of major cuts to the department.

Parks explained, "This should help us to provide some stability for our officers it lets them know they will receive a 2 percent increase as of December of 2016."

Parks says the uncertainty has seen officers retiring early, or moving to other departments. The department now has about 100 fewer officers on the streets than it had just a few years ago.

Brand agreed, the deal which runs for the next three years was needed to stabilize the force.

"Thank you for addressing what I think is a huge problem for our city when we've dropped to perilous levels in public safety," said Brand.

The deal means current officers will get a two percent pay raise, but also increase their health and retirement costs by 2 percent. So Parks says they won't see more money. And new officers will pay more.

"Each officer hired this day forward is going to pay 4 percent more for their retirement or 5 percent for their health care, that's forever," Parks said.

While the city figures it will save about $7 million, Parks notes the union offered $8 million in concessions last year. He adds the police officers have given up $22 million in benefits over the past five years to help the city deal with its past budget crisis.